Shun Ishikubo

The Annual Monte Bello Collector Component Tasting ~ On behalf of all who here at Ridge/Monte Bello, to all who attended this most special of annual events, we say thank you! Thank you Wine Gods … … thank you Weather… Read More ›

We’ve just completed the second round of the Monte Bello Assemblage Tasting, and the blend is in! It was quite a remarkable tasting; somewhat unique in its architecture, as compared to some past editions, in that it was essentially divided… Read More ›

We don’t do a great many events in any given year up here on our mountain, so when we do stage them, we try to thoroughly imbue them with all the passion and gravitas our four-sizes-that-day wine-hearts can muster. Our… Read More ›

I work at Monte Bello. Accordingly, much of my material for this blog has, as its point-of-origin, the mountain. That said, my colleagues to the north — at Lytton Springs — are wonderful about feeding me images, videos, and stories…. Read More ›

If you were visiting the Monte Bello Tasting Room on Sunday, and you happened to be up on our knoll at about 2pm in the afternoon, you would have gotten quite the visual treat. Looking down on the road below, you… Read More ›

“Hand-Crafted.” It’s a phrase we hear and see all the time. It’s both a potent marketing term, and a resonant concept. The terms suggests old-fashioned attention-to-detail, and a tradition-based respect for craft. It is a de facto affirmation of quality. By definition, it means… Read More ›